Fun Facts
This is a list of fun facts, goofs and trivia. Avatar Trivia *In the original script, Neytiri's name was Zuleika, and Jake's name was Josh *A casting call was posted on the website of Mali Finn Casting in early December 2005 for the female lead. The casting call was erroneously reported to be for James Cameron's Battle Angel (2011). However, Battle Angel will be the second of the back-to-back Cameron projects with a likely 2013 release. *Michael Biehn was considered for the role of Col. Quaritch. He met with James Cameron three times and saw some of the 3D footage, but in the end it simply came down to the fact that Cameron didn't want people thinking it was Aliens (1986) all over again, as Sigourney Weaver had already been cast. *Sigourney Weaver plays a James Cameron persona for her character in this film. Sigourney stated in an interview, "I teased him because to me I'm playing Jim Cameron in the movie as this kind of brilliant, approach-driven, idealistic perfectionist. But that same somebody has a great heart underneath. So I have to say I was always kind of channeling him." *James Cameron originally attempted to get this film made in 1999 as his immediate follow-up to Titanic (1997). However, at the time, the special effects he wanted for the movie ran the proposed budget up to $400 million. No studio would fund the film, and it was subsequently shelved for almost ten years. *The movie is 40% live action and 60% photo-realistic CGI. A lot of motion capture technology was used for the CGI scenes. *Seeing the character of Gollum in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) convinced James Cameron that CGI effects had progressed enough to make this film. *Promotional items were shipped to cinemas under the name "Project 880". *The film was shipped in two parts in the UK, first part was reels 1-5 and reels 6-10 came the following day. It was shipped under the codename "Redbird". *To help the actors prepare for their roles, director James Cameron took the cast and crew to Hawaii, where they spent their days trekking through the forests and jungles and living like tribes (building campfires, eating fish, etc), in order to get a better sense of what it would be like to live and move around in the jungle on Pandora, since there would not be any actual jungle sets to aid and guide the actors and crew. Zoe Saldana even dressed up as a warrior during these journeys, complete with an alien tail symbolic of the one her character has in the movie. These hikes were only done during the daytime, though; The cast and crew spent their nights at a Four Seasons hotel. *As of December 2009, with an alleged budget of US $280,000,000 (estimated), this is one of the most expensive movies ever made. *Sam Worthington appeared in Terminator Salvation (2009), the fourth Terminator movie. His appearance in this non-Terminator movie is notable as James Cameron directed The Terminator (1984), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), T2 3-D: Battle Across Time (1996) as well has having being a writer (creator of characters) on other Terminator franchise video-games and TV episodes. *First time that Sigourney Weaver has appeared in James Cameron film since Aliens (1986), a gap of twenty-three years. *Avatars have five fingers or toes on their hand or foot, whereas the Na'vi only have four. Avatars also have eyebrows, which the Na'vi lack. *Director Trademark: Cameron feet Close-up of Jake's feet when he moves them around in the soil, and close-up of Quaritch's feet as he gives the safety brief. *In much of the movie, Sigourney Weaver's avatar is wearing a Stanford shirt. Weaver attended Stanford in the early 1970s. *According to the read out and his statement made during the last log entry, Jake's birthday is August 24, though it is unclear whether he means his "human" birthday or his Na'Vi rebirth. *The spiral-shaped, retracting zooplantae that Jake encounters early in the film, Helicoradians, are presumably based off the Christmas Tree Worm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_tree_worm), a marine invertebrate which is commonly kept in reef aquariums. *The Na'vi language was created entirely from scratch by linguist Paul Frommer, who was hired by James Cameron to construct a language that was easily pronounceable by the actors, but lacking any resemblance or influence from any single human language. Around 500 words were created. *Though he is not credited in the film, several of the locations have been identified as looking remarkably similar to paintings by English surrealist Roger Dean, most notably his works "Floating Islands" and "Arches". *The Thai version of movie translates the word "Marine" into "Navi". (The Thai word for Marine is actually "Na-vig-ga-yo-tin", but to make voice over synced, the translator shortened it to "Navi".) So in Thai, Jake Sully is a "Navi" who becomes a "Na'vi". *Even though the year the movie takes place is never stated, scenes of Jake Sully recording his video log show that the year is 2154. *The biggest opener in the USA for a original film, previously held by The Incredibles (2004). *The first James Cameron film not to feature any of his "regulars" (Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein or Arnold Schwarzenegger). *Is the fifth film to gross 1 billion dollars (unadjusted for inflation). Goofs Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers) *At some point Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) can be seen in the laboratory filling a pipette and subsequently holding it upside-down (which would cause the liquid to run into the apparatus and is strictly to be avoided). *"Ninat is the best singer"- there IS an israeli singer named Ninet Tayeb, who won the israeli verision of "American Idol" (Kohav Nolad- a star being born in hebrew). The hebrew translations were written in a way that can be read as both "Ninat is the best singer" and "Ninet is the best singer". *During the final battle, the big gunship's cockpit is punctured multiple times by machine gun fire, and yet no one puts on their gas masks. *During the final assault on the Na'vi Tree of Souls, when all the aircraft take off at 0600 hours, there is a short clip of soldiers and officers cheering the attacking force on from the command room. During this cheer, one of the soldiers on the bottom left of the screen punches himself in the head with his own gun and appears to knock his hat off. He looks around briefly to see if anyone noticed, then continues cheering. *During Jake's first experience recording his thoughts on the video log, Norm tells him that one of the benefits of such recordings is that it will help to "keep him sane for the next six years." While the mission as a whole does last six years, most of it was spent in cryogenic sleep while traveling to Pandora; only three months remained of the six year mission. Continuity *During the first battle between the humans and the Navi, the Navis' arrows failed to penetrate any of the human vehicles' windshields. However, during the final battle, the Navi arrows successfully penetrate the windshields (probally due to the force of the Navi riding the mountain banshee's in a downward angle, giving the projectile more force). *During the first conference meeting with Quaritch and Selfridge, Jake Sully's arms change position from holding on to the bars on the table, to having his elbows on the table and holding his hands together. *When Quaritch is talking to Jake Sully whilst climbing into a Amplified Mobility Platform (AMP) suit, a red tag is visible hanging off its right arm reading 'Remove before Operation'. Quaritch does not remove the tag, nor does anyone else, before he begins to operate the AMP. It is only when the AMP walks away that the tag has mysteriously disappeared. *When sat around the holographic table at one point, Jake Sully takes his hands from his wheel chair and interlocks his fingers, resting on the table. In the next shot, his hands are back on his wheel chair and move to grip the table's edge. In the next shot, his fingers are interlocked again. *When Jake Sully is meeting with his superiors around the giant 3-D map of Home Tree, and Parker makes a funny quip about monkeys, Sully's arms appear crossed and uncrossed between camera angles. From the angle where his arms are uncrossed, he can then be seen crossing them. *Neytiri lets go of Jake's arm twice when the seeds of the sacred tree land on him. *Guns and human weapons fit perfectly in Na'vi's hands and fingers, despite they are considerably bigger than humans. Even when a Na'vi steal a human weapon, suddenly it looks proportionate to his body, when it actually should appear ridiculously small. *At the beginning of the movie, when Jake walks for the first time by using his avatar, he escapes from the lab and starts running towards the forest, where he encounters a human wearing an AMP suite. It will be almost equal to his size. But at the climax fight, Jake's avatar is almost half of the AMP suit of Colonel Quaritch. *Although Jake Sully's avatar goes to sleep at night, thus enabling Jake to disconnect from it, all of the debriefings are shown to be in daylight, which wouldn't be possible had Jake actually returned to his avatar in order to learn the Na'vi ways. *During the attack on Home Tree when Jake and Grace are tied up, Colonel Quaritch zooms in on them with the ships camera and sees Jake is on the right hand side, but later when Moat comes to cut their binds, Jake is on the left hand side. *Sully shoots an animal with an arrow and when he goes over to the animal's body he runs from the opposite side of where the arrow went. *When Sully first links into his avatar, the avatar has 6 toes on each foot. Later when he goes to get his flyer, as he crosses a ledge, the camera pans down and shows the avatar only has 5 toes on each foot. *When the Na'vi people are running when the battle scene is about to begin, Grace trips before she's about to climb over a log. Jake then pulls her completely over the log, it changes to the humans, then back again to Jake and Grace where he is pulling her over the same log again. *During the video recording sessions by Jake, as the plot progresses the date displayed on the computer screen always runs backward. *Towards the climax, when Jack Sully throws the missile on to the helicopter and it blows up, we see Quaritch's left arm sleeve catch fire, but in the next shot when we see him climbing into the robot his right sleeve is on fire. *It is shown that Grace was injured in the stomach area as the group escaped from the military base. However, when she is lying on the Tree of Souls, there are no scars or blood shown in the stomach area. It is also unlikely that the bullet could have been removed, as neither Jake, Norm, nor Trudy have the advance knowledge of a surgeon. *In the climax, when Jake Sully is injured and is dying inside the aircraft due to the lack of mask, Neytiri helps him out. When she places his hand on her cheek, his hand is almost as big as her head (though he is non-Avatar form). *When Jake is consulting the Tree of Souls before the main battle his queue swaps from behind his back to the front of his right shoulder (just before he connects with the Tree), and later when Neytiri talks to him his braid moves from his front to his back with no indication of him flipping it back or swatting it behind him. *When Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) first tames his Banshee and learns how to fly, his queue is connected to the Banshee. Then for a brief moment it can be seen flapping in the wind, and then you see it connected again. Sources http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499549/triviaIMDB.com http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499549/goofsIMDB.com Category:Production